My first lead climb in J-Tree! Sharp! Tape up and welcome to J-Tree! This route reminds me of the East Slab on the Dome in Boulder Canyon, but this is a more direct line and a more solid, consistant crack. Jam up and go. Eventually, the crack peters out, and it gets "frictiony", so beginner leaders should put in a piece before leaving the crack! Jam and go, and have fun!

The start of this climb is somewhat intimidating looking for a 5.6 climb, but the crack eats up pro and good climbing follow for a nice short route. Very fun then as fun downclimb to the right gets you back to the base.

The start was a little hard, physically, as the two walls leaned out to prevent a good stem on the polished rock. Still, the lie-back technique was brute force, but not tricky there, so it was not really a technical move over 5.6 or 5.7- just physically hard.

Start the first 10-15' with a stem or a lieback. Stem worked great for me but my legs are a little longer. From there you can get a great stance for most of the rest of the climb by left foot in the crack. The first 15' is the crux and probably more like 5.7 as you need to be sensitive about where you stem - the feet arent that great.

You could pretend the right arete isnt there with huge handholds and climb it like a nice 5.7 hand crack. Its probably 5.5 with the arete/face holds. This is a good route for practicing hand jams.

The "walk off" is a 3rd/4th class patina plate/semi-chimney downclimb or 5th class patina plate downclimb to the climbers right.

Be judicious with your feet at the start and don't take the grade for granted (if you're leading 5.7 to 9). It is steep an strenusous for several moves at the start with slick feet (despite the very sharp rock for your hands). I blew off but fortunately my gear held (a gold Alien!) and I "only" shredded my fingers on the very sharp rock. Debrided, taped-up and finished the route (and several others over the next few days). Very good climb nonetheless.

Was very much looking forward to this climb, but upon checking out the top section it became very apparent that something was either attracting a lot of bees about 2/3 the way up or they had decided to make their little bee home inside the crack. Thus, with my heart torn in pieces I eventually agreed with my partners that it was probably a bad idea to go creeping up into their home turf.

No bees on 1-15-11. Really fun lead. Didn't use any nuts or tiny cams. Rated G climb - lots of places for solid protection and really good stances to place pro. Brought a full rack of cams up to 2.5. Also brought a few large hexes and loved them.

First lead on this today. Beginning few moves are a bit strenuous, but totally mellow stances for placing pro thereafter. Using a crash pad at the bottom will help in the event you slip off the first move or two. Very fun, and a great line.

First few feet seemed pretty stiff for a 5.6. I thought a 5.7- might be more accurate. Slipped and landed on my butt starting it. No damage done, except to my ego. Overall a very fun climb. Best at it's grade on Castle Rock, and better than Bonnie Brae, by far.

The real trick on this climb is the first 15 feet or so. The good news is it has a flat sandy base, so if you take a couple grounders before getting your first piece in, like I did, the landing is good. After that the route mellows. Bring all you medium to large cams and rack everything on your right side. Down low the crack will eat all you medium sized cams (.75 to 3)and near the top I placed a #5 nearly tipped out. Rack a couple small cams and nuts on your left to build your anchor.

"The real trick on this climb is the first 15 feet or so. The good news is it has a flat sandy base, so if you take a couple grounders before getting your first piece in, like I did, the landing is good."

After reading some of the other posts here, I conclude that the start must really be the crux for a shorter climber. I'm 5'10" and it was a bit of a stretch for me...my GF had some real problems starting, but she was only 5'0". I took a look at this on the way out, going home a couple weeks ago, and it certainly is an intimidating-looking route for "only" 5.6!